Weekly round up October 16th

What a week, and saying that in 2020 is quite something! But with the tier 2 announcements and the No deal Brexit bombshell, it really is quite something.

What are you doing to cultivate joy? For me it’s family, reading, meditation and flowers. I’ve bought bundles of dried flowers; daisies and heather mostly and they are so joyous to look at. I love flowers, rocks and stones a great deal, and am often reminded of the Alice Walker poem when looking at them:

We alone can devalue gold

by not caring

if it falls or rises

in the marketplace.

Wherever there is gold

there is a chain, you know,

and if your chain

is gold

so much the worse

for you.

Feathers, shells

and sea-shaped stones

are all as rare.

This could be our revolution:

to love what is plentiful

as much as

what's scarce.

In terms of plentifulness and scarcity I’ve been thinking a lot about mindsets - about the difference between a scarcity mindset and one of abundance. How a scarcity mindset is encouraged; competition with others, jealous petty policing of boundaries and spaces, of all sorts, when really the world is truly so abundant, there is more then enough for us all if we just shift the optic. It’s an idea I’ll be developing.

How are you all feeling? I know I’m exhausted…my youngest babe recently turned 1 which marks a year of sleep deprivation but in a way the tiredness sort of cushions me from the shit show that’s unfolding around us, in that I’m too tired to respond emotionally - small mercies! Or it might just be that there is such an onslaught of mindboggling behaviours from the people supposed to be in charge, that it become difficult to respond to each new one with much energy.

I was so busy this month that I had to take a little time out from writing my second book What White People Can Do Next but things are calming down again and I’m returning to reading and researching for that (in many ways one of the most enjoyable parts of the book writing process). I have lots of books that I’m reading simultaneously this week (or trying to) ; The Origins of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood, and Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Ferguson Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Davis. I also just received some potential new DisobedientBodies book club picks ! Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, and a beautiful new issue of the Harlem Renaissance classic Passing, by Nella Larsen - so can’t wait to check out the former and revisit the latter! I also start my We will Dance with Mountains course on Sunday and I’m really looking forward to it. As I’m writing I’m also thinking how on earth I’m gonna get everything I need done done this weekend and am reminded about the demands on our time in this messy world of ours.

I’ll sign off now but please feel free to respond to this – would love to hear some of your thoughts x